The PGA Tour is keen to see LIV golf players banned from participating in the FedEx Cup. Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour on Wednesday as they look to overturn suspensions.
Gooch, Swafford and Jones want the temporary restraining order for what the lawsuit contends are "impermissible suspensions" from the FedEx Cup playoffs. The PGA Tour has requested a federal judge to deny the requests of the golf trio while a hearing for the players' motion was set for Tuesday in San Jose, California.
The professional golf organisation released the 122-player field for the St. Jude Championship and Gooch, Swafford and Jones have not been included. The tournament will tee off Thursday in Memphis.
"Despite knowing full well that they would breach Tour Regulations and be suspended for doing so, plaintiffs have joined competing golf league, LIV Golf, which has paid them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money supplied by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to procure their breaches," the PGA Tour said in its motion to oppose the restraining order.
"Plaintiffs now run into court seeking a mandatory injunction to force their way into the Tour's season-ending FedExCup Playoffs, an action that would harm all Tour members that follow the rules. The antitrust laws do not allow plaintiffs to have their cake and eat it, too."
As LIV Golf and those affiliated with the breakaway series continued to suffer backlash, its founder Greg Norman issued a statement reiterating the belief that players are free agents and should not be prohibited to play on just one tour. "I believe players have the right to play when and where they choose so their talents can take them as far and high as possible," Norman said.
"I believe all players -- whether they choose to play with LIV or the PGA Tour -- understand and appreciate the purpose and importance of the players' legal actions, across the globe. The PGA Tour is trying to cast this as 'us' against 'them.' The players know better."
The three players and eight others, including Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week.
"The punishment that would accrue to these players from not being able to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs is substantial and irreparable," the golfers' attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, "and a temporary restraining order is needed to prevent the irreparable harm that would ensue were they not to be able to participate."
